Heating of metal workpieces prior to forming operations such as hot forging, rolling, extrusion etc. is a significant part of the process. Heating of the workpiece is usually performed in a furnace and subsequently, the workpiece is placed in the forming machine. This is a series of independent operations in the sequence of heating, handling and forming. There are a few patents granted and technologies developed on combined heating and forming. In Weldon and Jains invention (U.S. Pat. No. 5,515,705) the lower and upper dies forging the billet in between are used as electrodes supplying electric current. This invention has some technical difficulties and limitations of practical implementation due to relatively small contact are between workpiece and dies, electrical arcs formed by sharp features of the dies and workpiece, localized overheating and uncontrollable deformation or melting on the workpiece. In another patent in which heating by electrical resistance and forming are combined (Yasui, U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,954) the sheet metal workpiece are formed at superplastic conditions and welded to each other using diffusion welding. The applicant of this patent also holds a patent (Terziakin, U.S. Pat. No. 6,463,779) on this technology. In the proposed apparatus, the electrical heating is conducted inside the press table and thus the dies need to be designed accordingly. The press ram is stopped for a few seconds while the sheet metal part is being heated via conditioned electric current and the forming process is performed immediately after the heating is complete. Therefore, the electrodes need to be isolated from the dies and the workpiece must not touch the dies during when the electric charge is on.